


The Only Exception

by LightInside



Category: Avatar: Legend of Korra
Genre: Alternate Universe - Detectives, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Alternate Universe - Modern: No Powers, Death, Detectives, F/F, Gen, Murder, Murder Mystery, Plot before ship
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-03-19
Updated: 2016-03-19
Packaged: 2018-05-27 15:46:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6290497
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LightInside/pseuds/LightInside
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A modern detective murder mystery au inspired by things that were inspired by Sherlock Holmes. LoK characters, modern version of LoK setting, Sherlock/Elementary-like plot. Genius Asami Sato returns to Republic City after being gone for years and takes up work as a consulting detective for the RCPD. Korra Watson is thrust into Asami's life by a job offer from her father that's too good to pass up. Case by case, the two find themselves in the midst of something larger than they expected.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Only Exception

**Author's Note:**

> I've been binge watching Elementary again and thoroughly enjoying it and I decided I really wanted to try my hand at a detective style fic. I started writing an original work in a similar vein once for NaNoWriMo, but only got about 20k words in. I like the plans I've got for this one, and I think you'll all find the mysteries (probably about 7 of them all together) enjoyable, and I hope you can bear with me through the early stages where some characters may feel off, especially Asami. There are reasons and it'll become clear, I promise.
> 
> PS: I swear I'm still working on the other things, just slowly with all the external stress in my life right now. KAM and Demons will be back on track soon, for real! This first chapter is mostly just a teaser for you all to show I'm not dead, cause I won't be back to this story for a little while. don't hate me I love you

Korra knew almost nothing about her new client. She knew her name was Asami Sato, that her father Hiroshi Sato had been the one to reach out to Korra about the job, and that this shabby-looking excuse for a house was where the daughter was staying after recently returning to Republic City. Its location prohibited it from having a yard, and its neighbors on either side were scarcely more than a body’s width apart from it. The paint was peeling and the wooden door at the top of a set of concrete steps was clearly weathered, varnish wearing off under the elements and repeated poundings, leaving behind an uneven surface that was rough to the touch. Even a few shingles were missing from the roof that capped the third story. This did not look like the residence of the daughter of a business tycoon.

She knocked firmly on the door four times, then waited for a response that didn’t come. She repeated the process twice before coming to the conclusion that Asami wasn’t in. This was her second attempt to find the woman at home without success. She had been hoping to introduce herself before her first day on the new job, but that was seeming less and less likely as she was also unable to reach Asami by phone and there was only one day remaining in her current situation. Increasingly frustrated, she reluctantly left the premises, heading towards her favorite coffee shop where she intended to spend the remaining hour that she’d set aside for the meeting before her next appointment.

As she walked, she composed a brief text message to Hiroshi, informing him that his daughter was still impossible to contact and suggesting that she might require his assistance to set up a meeting at this rate. She received a message back less than two blocks later, apologizing for Asami’s absence and promising that he would attempt to arrange something should the meeting attempt fail again. Korra rolled her eyes, annoyed that he insisted that she make another trip which she felt positive would be a waste of time, but she knew from her contact with him over the past few days that she wouldn’t be able to change his mind, and that he was going to be compensating her well enough for her to put up with a few inconveniences.

The barista waved at her as she entered and wrote her name on a cup before she made it to the counter. “The usual?” he asked casually. She nodded and he scribbled again before passing the cup along to his coworker. She thanked them both and took her drink to her favorite seat: next to the window, facing the door, two tables from the corner. She dropped her backpack to the floor beside her, then stared out at the city and sipped idly for a few minutes before pulling out her phone again and re-selecting ‘Asami Sato’ from her recent search history. She skimmed the first two pages of results just to see if the engine’s algorithms had changed any of the top results, but when everything was familiar to her from her previous attempts to research her new client, she skipped to the third page in hope of finding at least a little bit of actual information. She knew digging this deep was typically futile, but then she didn’t often encounter such a dearth of information about a person on a web search of their full name.

She supposed she did know a few other things about Miss Sato, despite the lack of search results that were actually about her. Thanks to various articles about the Sato family that mentioned Asami in passing, Korra knew that her mother died over 20 years ago, she knew that she'd been out of the country for several years, and she knew that her father was the wealthy CEO of Future Industries, one of the leading technology firms in the world. She knew that she'd recently sustained a rather extensive muscle injury. And she knew that the single father who had raised her was eccentric based on the stipulations that accompanied Korra's employment.

As she skimmed through several articles that didn’t seem to tell her anything useful, Korra grew more and more uneasy. After a short while, she recognized it as the feeling that someone was watching her. She gazed around the café, eyeing the few other patrons: a man in his thirties with thick rimmed glasses reading the paper, a woman in business attire talking into her phone with the mouthpiece shielded to muffle the conversation, a college student behind her chewing on the back end of a pencil while hunched over a notebook. She peered outside and found a woman on a bench across the street looking back and forth between the city skyline and a sketchpad, a man trying unsuccessfully to light up a cigarette as he leaned against the bus stop sign, and an employee of a nearby thrift store using a rag and a squeegee to clean the shop's windows from the inside. She held each in her gaze for a long moment, even surreptitiously observing the others while feigning focus on one or another, but despite their various oddities she got no impression that any of them was spying on her. Slowly, the sensation faded, and she returned to her research, skimming three more worthless links before finishing her coffee and departing for her appointment.

She had a couple of miles to walk: the bus schedule wouldn’t get her there on time and she was too broke for a taxi. She was in great shape, maybe not quite as good as before but still better than most. Even so, she could feel the joints in her legs and feet aching as the blocks passed by. The weather wasn't helping, pressure changing as gray clouds pregnant with rain rolled in after the sun had shone all morning. She didn’t used to experience aches in her joints before storms, and she had always assumed that the older folks who claimed to were making it up, but she couldn’t explain the correlation over the past few years any other way. She lengthened her stride to stretch the muscles more and work through a greater range of motion.

Right on time, Korra arrived at her destination, a duplex nearly as poorly maintained as Asami’s flat. She made her way to the door on the right side and rang the doorbell. “Go away!” was the response she received.

“Mr. Yang? It's Korra Watson. I'm here for our appointment. We agreed on 3 o’clock.” An audible sigh followed by a heavy groan and grumbling resulted, and a moment later the door swung open. “Hi. How's the knee?” She stepped inside and he shut the door behind her.

“Terrible. But it's getting better. Slowly.”

“That's good to hear,” she smiled, sitting down on the floor and digging into her backpack for her supplies. “Listen, I wanted to let you know that this is going to be your last appointment with me. I know you've still got a ways to go, but I took a different job and it's gonna keep me busy full-time. I've set you up with a friend of mine instead.” He gave her a withering look, and she held her hands up defensively. “Don't worry, she's way better at this than I am, and she's giving you a discount off her normal rate as a favor to me. I picked her because I thought she'd be a good fit for you. Here's her card. You can set up an appointment with her after our session today.” She stood and offered him the slip, in response to which he grunted and shoved the card in his pocket before looking away. “Please, give her a call. She'll be able to help you. And I'll check in with her to make sure you do, so don't make me come back out here.” Another grumble, this one a reluctant affirmative. “Good. Now let's get started.”

\----

That night, Korra tried calling Asami again. She would really have preferred to get in contact before showing up at her door, but Miss Sato wasn't giving her the chance. It rang six times, then a clearly synthesized voice informed her that she should leave a message after the tone. There wasn’t even a personalized greeting for Korra to try to get some miniscule sense of Asami from. She didn’t bother recording anything, as the previous four messages she’d left had went unanswered. After two more trips to voice mail, Korra resigned herself to another call attempt in the morning before she would try one last time to catch the mysterious woman at her home.

She dropped her phone on the bed and pulled out her laptop. It may have been several years old and worn to the point that half the keys were missing their letters, but it was hers and it still worked well. After finishing the last few links on page three of Asami Sato’s search results, she decided that she had no choice but to go into the arrangement blind. Hiroshi had been strangely reluctant to talk about his daughter in anything other than professional terms. She guessed that was because he hadn't seen her in years, with her traveling abroad, but it wasn't Korra's place to ask. She pulled up the email Hiroshi had first contacted her with, reading it over for the eighteenth time, hoping to glean any additional details from it that she might have missed.

_ Ms Watson, _

_ Various sources have made me aware that you have recently returned to Republic City and are looking for some short term employment. I'm sorry for contacting you unsolicited, but I’d like to offer you a job that I think will interest you. _

_ I need someone trustworthy to help my daughter, Asami, while she recovers from a recent injury. She has agreed to my terms on the arrangement, and if you are also agreeable, I would like you to work with her full-time until she has fully recovered. I know this is a somewhat unusual request, but I would ask of you not only your typical work, but also for you to live in one of my properties with her and accompany her at all times. I hope that by doing so, we might prevent her from making her injury worse. Heavens know that she won’t postpone her activities for something as trivial as her health. I want someone to do the heavy lifting for her so she is less tempted to do it herself, and I know she wouldn’t stand for a third person in her living space. _

_ All of your expenses will be covered, and you will be paid one hundred thousand yuans over the course of Asami's twelve week recovery. If this offer interests you, please contact me as soon as possible. I would like to have someone with her before the week is out. _

_Respectfully,  
Hiroshi Sato_

She'd thought it was a scam at first, but dropping a name like Hiroshi Sato - easily identifiable as a multi-billionaire with or without an internet search - made her give the proposition a second look. She had decided that just emailing him back for more information couldn't hurt, and he had been thrilled to hear back from her, immediately giving her his personal contact number and espousing details about his expectations for the job. It seemed kind of unorthodox, but she chalked it up to the eccentricities of genius and a ludicrously rich inventor being overprotective of his only daughter. She decided that, for a hundred thousand yuans, she could live with and look after Asami for a couple of months no matter how much of a pain she might be.

Still, she felt sure that this job wasn't going to be a walk in the park. Of course, the exorbitant nature of the fee could be explained at least in part by the sheer wealth of her employer and the both unusual and personal nature of the request, but with Hiroshi’s reluctance to give up even the smallest bit of real information about Asami, she couldn't help but feel like he was afraid that doing so would scare her off of the job. With so little to go on, her imagination had run wild with possible explanations: perhaps the technology tycoon’s daughter was disfigured to the point of being grotesque, or so utterly spoiled or self-absorbed as to be insufferably vapid, or an insomniac with a manic disorder and a penchant for sprinting along the edges of the city. Anything to explain what made this job so apparently difficult to warrant how lucrative it was alongside Hiroshi’s choice to stay tight-lipped. 

Speculation was getting her nowhere, though. She knew that she would just have to wait until she met Asami, hopefully tomorrow since she was scheduled to move in the day after. Closing her laptop again, she set it to the side and set about changing into clothes more appropriate for a workout. She was still trying to get back in top shape after her ordeal, and if she was going to be accompanying Asami everywhere, who knew when she might get the chance for a real workout again, or how badly she might need to be in peak physical condition to accommodate her charge’s requirements. She grabbed her phone off the bed and her earbuds from the nightstand, then set off for the gym.

\----

The next day, after another failed attempt to contact Asami by phone and the completion of her only morning appointment, Korra made one final attempt to meet her new client in person before moving in. She strode up to the now-familiar weatherbeaten door and tapped out her standard four knocks. Not to her surprise, but much to her chagrin, no answer came. She knocked once more to no response before resigning herself to meeting Ms. Sato after she had obtained a key from Mr. Sato. She turned to leave, but stopped at the bottom of the steps to look back at her new temporary home. 

That's when she noticed something odd about the drapes in the front window. At first she'd taken it to be a slight discoloration, perhaps from disuse and sun bleaching, but at this angle she could see the slightest sliver between the curtains, and there she saw a color discrepancy that lined up perfectly with the discoloration in the fabric. Moreover, the gap between the panels revealed that the change was from a deep crimson to a distinctly fleshy color of ivory. Her suspicions were confirmed when the border between the two colors shifted slightly.

She grit her teeth and scowled at the window before turning around again, marching back to the door, and pounding on it more rapidly and forcefully than before. “Asami Sato, I know you're in there! I saw you through the drapes! Open up!” When no response came, she took to a constant, rapid pounding.

After nearly a full minute, the outside of her fist was starting to tingle with numbness when the door opened inward and her hand swung through air instead. Before her stood a tall woman about her age with flawless skin and long wavy black hair pulled back into a ponytail, her right arm in a sling. She wore simple skinny jeans and a crimson tank top despite the autumn air. She was carrying a thermos and her bare feet had smatterings of red. Korra couldn't deny that she was one of the most naturally attractive people she'd ever seen. Her voice was smooth and melodious even in aggravation when she spoke. “Fine, fine, as long as you stop making all that racket. Absolutely destroying my concentration. What do you want?”

“Miss Sato. I'm-”

“Korra Watson, I know. I've been in touch with my father too, he was very clear about his terms, basically forcing me to accept you as hired help.”

Korra ground her teeth, not appreciating being cut off or the implication about her job position. “Then you also know that I'll be your roommate for the next few months. I was hoping we could start off on the right foot.”

“So you decided to come to my new home unannounced three separate times and be as distracting as possible, stopping me from concentrating on my work. Excellent course of action.”

“It wouldn't have been unannounced if you would have answered any of my phone calls!”

“Is that what that noise was? I’ve been rather engrossed the past few days, must have tuned it out. Anyway, I'm quite busy, so if you're satisfied with our meeting, I'll be getting back to my work. I'm sure I'll see you tomorrow when you move in.”

She made to shut the door, but as she turned her head, Korra got a powerful sense of familiarity and made the connection immediately. She stuck her foot out and stopped the door in its tracks. “I recognize you. You were the woman with the sketchpad outside the coffee shop yesterday. You couldn't have been actually drawing, you can barely use that arm. You were spying on me. Why?”

Asami met her eyes and held the gaze in silence for a moment, her expression unreadable. At length, she finally replied. “You're rather observant, aren't you? Recognizing me when I was blending in yesterday, noticing me through the curtains. It's an uncommon skill, in my experience.” She paused several seconds before continuing, “I was watching you to learn about you. I was curious about who my father found to hire as a live-in personal assistant with training as a physical therapist. You're not certified, of course, so you can't practice it officially, but you must have gleaned enough during your own recovery to be serviceable or my father wouldn't have picked you. I have a general understanding of the physiology myself, you'll largely be my father's way of making sure I follow through on the tedious routine. I take it you studied up on the practice independently so that you could advise on injuries that aren't to the legs.”

Korra's frown soured into a glare. “How long have you been watching me?”

Asami waved her hand dismissively. “Just the once yesterday, about half an hour. I have better things to do than stalk you. Most of the time.”

“Then who told you I'm not licensed? Or about my recovery? I keep those quiet and I want to know which of my friends doesn't know how to keep their mouth shut.”

“No one told me. I saw.”

“You  _ saw _ ?”

“Yes, just like I see that you have a large white dog, that you cut your own hair, that you're ambidextrous, that you don't have a car, and that you used to be a firefighter before the injury to your legs forced you out. Pretty severe injury too, severe enough to make you return to the south pole for at least a few years. I also know that you used to date a police officer and that your client from this morning has two cats and a drinking problem.”

Korra stood stalk still, stunned at the list of assertions from Asami. She tried to come up with some way to respond, something to say back, but her mind was too busy racing over Asami's claims, what her friends knew about her, what she found the last time she searched her own name online. After a few moments of silence, Asami spoke again.

“Anyway, as I said, I'm quite busy conducting an experiment dealing with compression of partially coagulated blood. I'll have one of the rooms cleared out for you before you return tomorrow so that you can invade my privacy and interrupt my work as my father insists. Until then, Miss Watson.”

The door snapped shut before Korra's mind caught up enough to form a syllable. She thought about knocking again, but had the distinct feeling that she wouldn't get an answer and wouldn't know what to say if she did. Instead, she turned and took the steps slowly back to the street, still trying to make sense of the encounter.

As she made her way toward her next client, the second to last that she needed to cut things off with, she felt her steps growing faster and heavier as her disbelief turned to indignation. She tried to put Asami's infuriating attitude out of her mind and focus on the upcoming appointment. She was entirely unsuccessful, of course, and soon pulled out her phone, typing her own name into the search bar and skimming through the results. After checking every link that actually pertained to her, Korra came to the conclusion that Asami must have gotten the information from one of her friends. The only bits she could have pulled from the internet were that she was a firefighter and that she was injured on the job. Korra had never maintained much of a presence on social media, so she couldn't fathom how Asami had even identified any of her former friends apart from the one other firefighter, but she couldn't think of any other explanation, even if Asami had been watching her since Hiroshi first contacted her. And if she had been telling the truth about only watching her once, how could she have known about that morning's client, of all things?

The miles disappeared, and Korra found herself at the apartment of her client in what felt like no time. As she checked progress, made recommendations, and explained that she wouldn't be continuing as their physical therapist, she ran over each of her friends in her mind trying to decide who was the most likely to have told someone about her.

On her way to her final appointment, she texted each and every one of them, and by the time the appointment was finished, she'd received replies from every last one assuring her that they hadn't told anyone about her, that no one had even asked. Her frustration mounted again until she came to the only remaining conclusion. Either Asami or Hiroshi must have hired a private investigator. That was the only way that everything made sense. The PI must have been very thorough and gotten results to Asami very quickly if they had told her things about that morning's client, but that was actually feasible at least. She decided she'd have to confront Asami about it when she moved in the next day, make sure they both understood the personal boundaries of the other. A background check was certainly acceptable for a new employee, but a full investigation was over the top. Cohabitation with someone so seemingly blunt (and her employer's daughter) was going to be challenging enough as it was, she wanted to avoid additional strain if she could. 

The sun was already set by the time she neared her home, and she walked purposefully through the dimly lit streets with a hint of tension in her shoulders. She wasn’t in the best part of town, as was her only option on her current income, but she knew she could handle herself if anything happened. Still, she always had an ominous feeling whenever she was out just after dark, and she kept her pace up.

She heard the sirens before she saw the lights, the familiar wail of a fire engine drawing closer until it turned onto the street a few blocks ahead of her. She continued on, doing her best to not worry about it, until the fire truck made a left turn about a mile down the road, onto the street where her apartment building was located. An ambulance and two police cruisers soon passed through the same intersection, and she couldn't ignore the growing dread in her stomach any longer. She quickened her stride, and nearly two miles later, she arrived at her residence amidst a sea of flashing lights and yellow tape.

An officer stopped her at the door to her building after she ducked the police line, but she explained to him that she lived there and after a bit of skepticism that was assuaged by her door key, he let her pass. As she ascended the stairs to the third floor, she passed two firefighters going down. One nodded to her, but the other pointedly avoided her gaze. When she arrived at her floor, she found three people standing outside the door to the apartment next to hers: a tall man about her age with short dark hair, a badge, and a notebook; an older woman with a stern expression and silver hair listening to the man’s report, and… 

“Asami?”

The raven haired woman turned and locked eyes with Korra. She was absent her sling, instead keeping the injured arm supported with the pocket of her peacoat, clearly trying to hide her injury from the people she was engaging with. Korra gave her an accusatory look after noticing the arm, but it was ignored. The other two were still engrossed, and after an only slightly uncomfortable pause, Asami replied. “Your apartment, this one?” She gestured with her other hand to the door just behind her, near the officers.

“No, this one,” she answered, pointing to the nearer door. “What are you doing here?”

“Only slightly better,” Asami responded, ignoring her question as she motioned for Korra to follow her to the door of her neighbor’s apartment. “They'll probably still question you: procedure. Waste of time since you're obviously innocent. On the bright side, you probably won’t need to be taken into protective custody. I don’t believe it was intended for you.” Asami stopped next to the open door and Korra leaned over to look inside. The wall that the apartment in question shared with Korra’s was practically demolished, along with the majority of the studio's contents. A body was sprawled on the floor, traumatized nearly beyond recognition, clearly as a result of the explosion that destroyed the apartment. “I think you'll have to bump your move to my home up to tonight, though.”

**Author's Note:**

> If anyone reading this is an actual, literal rocket scientist or has a strong background in chemical engineering, please comment below or contact me via my tumblr, i-have-light-inside. I would very much appreciate the chance to pick your brain about a thing.
> 
> I would, of course, love to hear from anyone else as well =3 but a rocket scientist would be especially helpful lol


End file.
